My Recent Rekindled Love Affair with Doom.

hamster

It has been years since I last played Doom. Too long in fact. I may go so far as saying that I think it is overdue I revisit this gem (Pink shades Warning). Anyway I got Doom I, II, Final and Ultimate in my hands. Back then my favourite was Doom I (E2M2 level especially! - nice tune too).

Now imagine to my horror and disappointed to find that Doom is blocky at 320x200 resolution and sound breaks up badly on my p3-800 XP machine. Knowing how XP hates old dos stuff I did a search on google and came across Zdoom. Zdoom I found allows me to play my old levels at 1024x768 (or whatever) and I was delighted to see I could take out that imp a mile away with pixel prefectness.

My only problem is that with the sheer number of ports out there I'm wondering if I'm using the "best" one available. What I mean by "best" is the one that can handle Doom I, II, Final, Ultimate etc in one port that can offer the greatest choice of resolutions or even Open Gl /D3D features. I haven't really strayed that much from the original versions of doom (except Zdoom) and I'm wondering can anyone recommend a decent port or all rounder laucher that can handle Doom and with extra resoltions?


Btw, If anyone is looking for cool level review (retro again) go to:
http://www.cph.demon.co.uk/doom/du/reviews/av.html
This one, Alien Resurration, one I never played but what a review.

This site reviews level in lovely detail. Nice to download the best wads with some inspiring documentation.

Any recommendations?

KdjaCL

Fancy a game of COOP one night???





kdjac

hamster

After a bit more googling I came across Doomworld's rather excellent ports page (this one for win 9.x /NT, other platforms are available too)

http://www.doomworld.com/ports/windows.shtml

shows quite a list. Anyone try any of these already? Likes or Dislikes?

KdjaC, I would if I had any way decent ping times. They are terrible.. fine for surfing but that's it and I have ISDN! EirCON are hopeless! Response time is measured in years....

phaxx

I found jDoom much nicer than zDoom, more detailed config options, just feels nicer. Oh, and md2 models, it's actually not a bad looking game with those.

KdjaCL

Hamster i have DSL and can host.

kdjac

DiscoStu

co op jdoom sounds nice. it actually makes that doom collectors edition worth having

jDoom is by far the best out there. multiplay is a breeze with it to.

phaxx

As we discovered at the last darkside lan, jDoom with around eight people is the limit - anything more and it's likely to just bomb out.

I also noticed something odd on the larger maps, you only saw movement of people a certain distance from you, so you can't fire at people further than that because their position is not updated. (I was firing at someone, moved closer, their model disappeared and I found he was behind me...)

hamster

This has led me to http://www.doomsdayhq.com. I forgot about this.... the Doomsday Engine. Pretty impressive... couple that with the models and you got an updated masterpiece.

tman

nice one, i've been using doom95 recently (ugh!), i'll grab z & j now

RicardoSmith

There used to be a brilliant aliens mod for the game that was excellent. Don't suppose anyone else remembers it?

hamster

RicardoSmith,

I think this is what you mean? Aliens! Total Conversation
http://www.doomwadstation.suhost.com/main/aliens.html

Never got around to this. Oh well another dl.

BKtje

since darkside (and getting j-doom) ive played through doom1 (all eps) and doom2. Now never finishing doom2 im stuck, that level with the icon (i believe it to be the last) that keeps spamming out beasts, htf i do that lvl?

jDoom workign reat for me under w2k and ne res i can think of, getting about 1000 fps (tho does drop to 60 at times ). Ive noticed tho that u run much faster in Jdoom than original and can jump onto things that before needed u to press levers. So in essence u can get to secret areas without having to do the secret bits

hamster

As far as I remember you fire a few (many a good few) rockets through a cut in the wall in or around the face. Did anyone ever play backwards the "speech" at the start of the level? Goes something along the lines of "I am John Romero kill me" ?
I only completed that level once back in Nov/Dec '95 so I can't quite remember. Not too crazy about the level though.

JDoom looks cool alright. It's set up now with 9Mb of models too and looks great.

BKtje

yer i just did it, found it very easy, even on ultra violence. Took 5 rockets or something.

It sounds something like,, "To win the game, kill me John romera" or something

tman

Originally posted by B-K-DzR
since darkside (and getting j-doom) ive played through doom1 (all eps) and doom2. Now never finishing doom2 im stuck, that level with the icon (i believe it to be the last) that keeps spamming out beasts, htf i do that lvl?

i just idclip'd my way through the wall & shot the corpse type thing inside, i guess rockets are the way you're supposed to do it:rolleyes:

doom is slowly making it's way back to the top of my list of all time favourite games thanks to jdoom, class piece of software.

i wonder if there's anything similar for wolfenstein?

doom 2's secret levels got me in the mood for it:) pic

BKtje

yer id like to play wolf again too

RicardoSmith

Originally posted by hamster
RicardoSmith,

I think this is what you mean? Aliens! Total Conversation
http://www.doomwadstation.suhost.com/main/aliens.html

Never got around to this. Oh well another dl.

Dunno could be not enough screengrabs to tell really.

Praetorian

Doom Legacy is the daddy. I think I read that Carmack uses it

LoBo

JDoom looks very interesting


.. however I would guess the WAD files for the doom series aren't freeware as they aren't listed?

I have a doom cd back home in Ireland.. but I guess I can't play jdoom without the wad yes?



Colm

Goodshape

Just finished playing the original doom with jDoom. It really does put a lot of recent FPS to shame.

Admittedly it wouldn't be half as good without the snazzy updated graphics... but that's the most fun I've had playing a computer game in ages. No silly gimmicks - just you, a shotgun and countless amounts of evil b@stards to kill. Great stuff.

I just hope they've got more to offer with Doom 3 than nice gfx.

It sounds something like,, "To win the game, kill me John romera" or something

...if you idclip through the wall on that last level, you can see john romera (or is it carmacks?) head on a stick. So effectivly, to win the game, you have to kill him.

DapperGent

Originally posted by RicardoSmith
There used to be a brilliant aliens mod for the game that was excellent. Don't suppose anyone else remembers it?

That was ****ing great!

"Check those corners, check those corners!"
"Keep it tight people."

Scared the pants off me too.

hamster

I'm must agree that the high body count is what makes Doom such a fun classic. The "Knee Deep in the Dead" is the best theme in it.... you know the sergeants and the imps... blow away about 100 of them in 15 seconds flat and try to get out without a scratch! Using the jDoom port I recommend the MegaWads "Alien Vendetta" and "Memento Mori". The best of the lot. If you are after a single level... go for "Dawn of the Dead revisited - Outpost 666"... excellent stuff.

Sarky

Very nice screenshots. How long before someone figures out how to pop in a motion blur effect off a 3d card?;)

I only played doom on the Amiga. Actually reasonable framerates considering I was running at about 30 MHz with no graphics card... Must see about finding it to install on the PC again.

Goodshape

Originally posted by Sarky
motion blur effect off a 3d card?;)

Motion blur? the only game I've seen this in is GTA 3 on the playstation. Don't see the need for it at all to be honest. Looks kinda cra.p